Why CPU Lapping isn't Very Worthwhile on Air/Water Cooling - Intel Core i9 12900K Lapping

If you want to improve the temperatures of your CPU when overclocking you can either think about delidding or improving the contact between the IHS and the cooling solution. Generally delidding can still help you by 5-10 degrees if the cooling solution you are using is very strong. Liquid metal is better than Indium solder between the IHS and the CPU Die, but the problem is that you can't use it below 0c or even below 5-10c. For extreme cooling such as dry ice, LN2 or phase change indium solder is the best thermal interface material (TIM) there is and it doesn't crack. On top of delidding you can also even sand the die which can improve the result even more and use a custom IHS.

So in my case delidding is out of the question as I do plan to try the CPU on LN2. The only thing I can do is try to improve the surface of the CPU to lower the temperatures. Generally the method is quite old and used for a long time. Back in the day like during 775 you could honestly gain a lot from lapping the CPU. Now it is quite pointless unless you lap the cooler as well because many PC Cooling manufacturers actually make the base of the cooling unit a little bit CONCAVE intentionally, because many of the modern CPUs have a convex IHS. So you can't gain much from lapping as the base of your cooler is not flat and actually it is designed for a little bit convex IHS.

Even if you lap the both surfaces you are likely looking at a gain of around 5 degrees at best, so even then it will still lose to delidding in terms of gains. I did this however quite successfully with Matador SiC sandpapers and lapped the CPU with up to 1200 grit sand papers. The key is to use as flat surface as possible for the process such as a glass panel or a mirror. Many youtubers have used just a wooden table or a mouse pad as lapping surface and that is not flat enough to do the process properly. I will go through the process quite in-depth on the video.

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